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August 07, 2007

2004 Timbuktu Big Block Red

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

After the House Blond was done at gymnastics I dispatched her, the boy, and Ms TWC to the Justice store so they could buy some Webkinz (with their own money as I'm not popping for Webkinz). Like my boy, I have a short attention span and so I wandered over to Cost Plus and inspected the wine (Surprised?).

Although I'm skeptical of cutsey wine labeling and find it a most excellent reason not to buy the wine, those guys had me at Big Block Red with that gorgeous '55 Chrysler Imperial. Of course, the '55 Imperial came with a 250 horsepower, 331 cubic inch Hemi, which was NOT a big block. Strong motor? Yes. Big Block? No. It also helped that the wine was marked down from $9.99 US to half that.

I swiped the picture from Purple Lips who reviewed it over a year ago, before it was five bucks US.

Big Block Red is a robust blend of five different varietals. 39% Cabernet, 27% Petit Verdot, 24% Shiraz, 6% Merlot, and 4% Malbec. Mmmmmmmmmm, Malbec, Argentina's grape of the New Millennium and France's lost grape of Bordeaux.

Lots of ripe black fruit, a little bit of something lightly fizzy on the back side, a little mulberry (have you ever had home-made mulberry jam?), not even a pinch of that cloying, nasty, sweetish flavor that is often passed off as cherries and afflicts any number of inexpensive red wines.

As for bargain rack wines, this stuff beats the socks off of Yellow Tail or anything from Two Buck Chuck [obligatory swipe at Shaw, sorry]. It's worth the original ten bucks and a steal at five. I'll even forgive the screw top but don't quote me on that.

Purple Lips sez the wine isn't even available in Oz. That may just be good marketing, but is there something wrong with that picture? That and no Australian could drive that '55 Imperial on the roads of Oz without converting it to right hand drive, a skewed picture indeed.

Big Block Red is a pretty good red wine. Enjoy it with grilled steak, prime rib, hearty Italian dishes, or Spanish tapas. As for TWC? It's a sad tale indeed that the bottle is empty ('m quite sorry its gone). They had about 15 bottles left. I'm going to buy them all.